Software glitch gives false amendment result in Broward County

[glugglug]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...041105/lo_wplg/2439900

For now they claim it didn't affect any other races. I find that hard to believe. And think about it, where are you going to have more than 32,000 voters per precinct? In the primarily democrat urban centers of course. I wouldn't be surprised if this is why Bush appears to have won Staten Island.

 

[Infohawk]

Man there are sure a lot of these glitches lately... how many of them decided elections?

 

[Spencer278]

2^31 = 2,147,483,648 What kind of an idiot uses short ints. Is memory really that expensive that they couldn't buy the extra 2 bytes? And if you going to be a cheap ass why wouldn't you use unsigned short ints?

 

[glugglug]

By the way ints in Win32 are 32-bit. There is only 1 modern programming language in which the default integer size is 16-bit. That would be Visual Basic. How comforting.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: glugglug
By the way ints in Win32 are 32-bit. There is only 1 modern programming language in which the default integer size is 16-bit. That would be Visual Basic. How comforting.

I'm just surpised they didn't use floats. What I don't get is that they say it counted backwards. Doesn't it rolll over when you go past what ever is 2^15-1 and then you get negitive numbers?

Are you sure VB is a modern programming language?

 

[glugglug]

Modern as in still commonly in use. Businesses are very hesitant to move to .NET.
I'm thinking they aren't that computer savvy, or maybe the reporter isn't, and that it counts 32767, -32768, -32767, -32766, -32765, -32764, ....

It would LOOK like it's counting backwards, until you notice the - sign in front.

 

[her209]

What about unsigned long. I believe an variable declared as an int is only 16-bit.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: glugglug
Modern as in still commonly in use. Businesses are very hesitant to move to .NET.
I'm thinking they aren't that computer savvy, or maybe the reporter isn't, and that it counts 32767, -32768, -32767, -32766, -32765, -32764, ....

It would LOOK like it's counting backwards, until you notice the - sign in front.

I would guess the code monkey saw that they where getting negitive results when they tested it so they did vote = abs(vote) and that problem was solved. Are sure VB defaults to short ints that just seems to retarded to believe but then again it is VB.

Edit: Just looked it up and it is 16 bits for VB 6.0 I guess to enter the 386 world of VB you need VB.net

 

[glugglug]

In Win32 C/C++ (and most other language) compilers, and all Linux compilers, int is 32-bit. short is 16-bit, but who is going to go out of their way to declare shorts instead of ints to save 2 bytes when they are slower on every CPU since the Pentium Pro, and have the obvious range downside?

Win16 and DOS compilers int is 16-bit. But who uses 16-bit apps any more?

Even VB yes they could have done longs by typing Long instead of Integer, its just people tend to use "Integer"s instead with it for some wierd reason.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: glugglug
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...041105/lo_wplg/2439900

For now they claim it didn't affect any other races. I find that hard to believe. And think about it, where are you going to have more than 32,000 voters per precinct? In the primarily democrat urban centers of course. I wouldn't be surprised if this is why Bush appears to have won Staten Island.

Well New York is one of the very few states who use lever voting machines- I don't think any place here uses those suspicious computers.

 

[qarlandZ]

You guys are confusing me with the "unsigned" and ^ thingies

 

[spacejamz]

Originally posted by: qarlandZ
You guys are confusing me with the "unsigned" and ^ thingies

i was confused after reading The glitch did not affect the outcome of any other races...

 

[StageLeft]

Who the fvck is writing and testing this stuff? I'm an average developer and even I could write some foolproof voting software in a short period of time. Pathetic beyond compare.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: qarlandZ
You guys are confusing me with the "unsigned" and ^ thingies

The ^ thing means the number raised to that exponital for example 2^4 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2. Each bit can store either 1 or 0 so 2^15 implies that there are 16 bits for the number but one is being used for a sign bit. Unsigned means that all the bits are used to store positive numbers. There is no bit used to store sign information so it is assumed to be positive. Not storing the sign doubles the avaiable range of positive numbers that can be used. For a more detailed explenation of storing numbers look up "two's complement numbers"

 

[Steeplerot]

If bushco stole this he's gonna have a very unwelcome party on the WH lawn next time he comes home from a vacation. :laugh:

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Who the fvck is writing and testing this stuff? I'm an average developer and even I could write some foolproof voting software in a short period of time. Pathetic beyond compare.

No kidding. Hell, I'm still in College, I don't even focus much on programming and *I* could write better voting software.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

simple in VB:

Dim Bush as Long
Dim Kerry as Long
Dim <other guys> as Long
Dim Error as Long

If (LeverPull() = Bush)=True Then
Bush = Bush + 1
Else If (LeverPull()= Kerry)=True Then
Kerry = Kerry + 1
Else if...blah blah Then
Else
error=error+1
End If

lblBush = Bush
lblKerry = Kerry
lblOther = other
lblNumIdiots = error

I haven't used VB for years, so any minor syntax error I made doesn't count. I know I screwed up the leverpull function\sub

 

[Steeplerot]

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
simple in GOP VB:

Dim Bush as Long
Dim Kerry as Long
Dim <other guys> as Long
Dim Error as Long

If (LeverPull() = Bush)=True Then
Bush = Bush + 1
Else If (LeverPull()= Kerry)=True Then
Kerry = Bush + 1
Else if...blah blah Then
Else
error=Bush + 1
End If

lblBush = Bush
lblKerry = Kerry //shhhh!
lblOther = other
lblNumIdiots = 141 million or so //But who knows with no papertrail !

I haven't used VB for years, so any minor syntax error I made doesn't count. I know I screwed up the leverpull function\sub

Fixed for Official Diebold/GOP Standards used in 2004 election :laugh:

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: steeplerot
If bushco stole this he's gonna have a very unwelcome party on the WH lawn next time he comes home from a vacation. :laugh:

Kerry lost, get over it.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: Spencer278
2^31 = 2,147,483,648 What kind of an idiot uses short ints. Is memory really that expensive that they couldn't buy the extra 2 bytes? And if you going to be a cheap ass why wouldn't you use unsigned short ints?

Yeah really i'd buy my district a whole 64MB if it meant the election would be fair.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: glugglug
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...041105/lo_wplg/2439900

For now they claim it didn't affect any other races.

it very likely affected ALL counties/states with electronic voting.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: judasmachine

Originally posted by: Spencer278
2^31 = 2,147,483,648 What kind of an idiot uses short ints. Is memory really that expensive that they couldn't buy the extra 2 bytes? And if you going to be a cheap ass why wouldn't you use unsigned short ints?

Yeah really i'd buy my district a whole 64MB if it meant the election would be fair.

But the real questions is would you left them upgrade to 386 with there crazy new 32 bit math? I'm not sure if the 286 and 86 had 32 bit math I know they didn't have 32 bit registers so if they did it would be slow.